Kansas teacher under fire for showing gay bullying film
Middle school social studies teacher pushed to resign for screening "controversial" film
A middle school teacher in Kansas has been asked to resign and is unlikely to ever return to the classroom in the school district where he teaches after showing his students a gay anti-bullying film.
Tom Leahy, a social studies teacher at Conway Springs Middle School in Conway Springs, Kansas, says he showed the film Love Is All You Need? to three of his eighth-grade history classes after an anti-gay incident in the classroom. As part of a class project, Leahy had instructed his students to create fictional colonies, each with its own Bill of Rights. But one of the groups said that gay people were not allowed in their colony, upsetting some other groups in the classroom.
“I was expecting fairly positive kinds of colonies: ‘Do things we think are right, and be nice,'” Leahy told The Wichita Eagle. But it just kind of got twisted around, and it became a place where certain people weren’t allowed. Then the issue of gay vs. straight came up, and a lot of them were not allowing gays into their colony and stuff like that. … There were some hard feelings. Kids were getting upset.”
As a result of the classroom controversy, Leahy decided to show Love Is All You Need?, a 2013 short film about a young straight girl who is bullied to the point of suicide in a world where the majority of people are gay or lesbian. But several parents complained after they heard of the film’s content, including a scene where the main character commits suicide. Other parents felt the movie was an attack on religion’s treatment of homosexuality, particularly the Catholic Church.
“I wanted kids to see that and see that different perspective and how would they feel if they were this young girl and bullied in her belief in liking boys which is totally opposite of the world we see,” Leahy told local CBS affiliate KWCH. “I think it made them think. During, after the video, I had a few questions and I talked about them. They said some of it wasn’t fair and some of it, you know we’d never do that to somebody and I said yeah, that’s true but that’s what this movie is trying to point out.”
Unfortunately, Leahy did not get permission from either parents or school administrators to show the video, which resulted from his removal from the classroom. Typically, with controversial films, videos or other presentations, teachers are expected to offer parents a chance to “opt out” — temporarily remove their children from class so that they don’t see the controversial material in question.
Leahy, who had been planning to retire next year, has been placed on leave and said he doesn’t see himself returning to teaching. He said he reached a mutual decision with the district and the superintendent that he would not be teaching in Conway Springs. However, he has not turned in a resignation — and he doesn’t regret his decision to show the movie.
“I believe in what I showed,” Leahy told KWCH. “And I believe that not just Conway Springs but in so many little towns we’re afraid of our own shadow. And I think if we learn more about these shadows we might be surprised and say you know what, these people are okay. They’re not out to hurt us or to change us or make us be a different person.”
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